Is the punishment of the damned truly without end, or do the lost cease to exist, or will all finally be saved? The Second Coming, the general judgment, and the resurrection are treated in the Eschatology topic; this hub concerns the nature and duration of the punishment itself.
25 verses are cited on this page. Each one links to its chapter in the Greek text.
And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting.Matthew 25:46
The decisive verse. One adjective, used twice in one sentence, of two parallel destinies. The duration of the one cannot differ from the duration of the other.
Who shall suffer eternal punishment in destruction, from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.2 Thessalonians 1:9
The destruction itself is called eternal, and is defined as exclusion from God's presence.
...into unquenchable fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished.Mark 9:43-48
Christ quotes Isaiah's closing image, a worm that does not die and a fire not put out, and this edition carries the saying once, at verse 48, since the repetitions at verses 44 and 46 are absent from the manuscripts it follows.
And the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever: neither have they rest day and night.Revelation 14:11
Continuing torment and continuing existence, without rest.
...and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.Revelation 20:10
The same phrase used of the devil and of those with him.
But rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell.Matthew 10:28
The annihilationist's strongest text, given at full strength.
...tormented day and night for ever and ever.Revelation 20:10
Yet the same book describes continuing torment, which annihilation cannot accommodate.
And lifting up his eyes when he was in torments... I am tormented in this flame.Luke 16:23-24
The rich man is conscious, speaking, and suffering after death, not extinguished.
...it were better for him, if that man had not been born.Matthew 26:24
A saying that has little force if the alternative were simply not existing, which is what never being born would mean.
Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.1 Timothy 2:4
God wills it, and the Church teaches that he does. What the verse does not say is that his will in this is irresistible, and Scripture elsewhere describes men resisting it. A will that saves regardless of the man would make the warnings pointless.
Whom heaven indeed must receive, until the times of the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets, from the beginning of the world.Acts 3:21
Apokatastasis, restoration, and the verse the universalist case is named for. Peter is speaking of what the prophets promised, and he says in the next breath that whoever will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. The restoration he preaches has someone left outside it.
And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.1 Corinthians 15:22
All and all, which is the strongest form of the argument. The next verse orders it, every man in his own rank, and the chapter ends with a kingdom delivered up rather than with a count of who is in it.
And through him to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, both as to the things that are on earth, and the things that are in heaven.Colossians 1:20
All things reconciled, and note what the verse lists: things on earth and things in heaven. It does not say things under the earth, which is where Philippians places the lost.
...and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it.Matthew 7:13-14
Christ's own answer to whether all in fact arrive.
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.Matthew 7:23
A final dismissal, not a delayed welcome.
Lord, are they few that are saved? But he said to them: Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able.Luke 13:23-24
Asked the question directly, Christ does not answer that all will be saved.
The question is settled less by the dictionary than by a sentence. In Matthew 25:46 Christ uses one word, aionios, twice in a single verse, of everlasting punishment and of life everlasting; whatever it means of the one it means of the other, and no one wishes to shorten the life of the just. Scripture speaks of unquenchable fire, of a worm that does not die, of torment day and night for ever, and of a rich man conscious and suffering beyond death. God truly wills that all be saved (1 Timothy 2:4), and the Church prays for it and hopes for it; but Christ, asked plainly whether the saved are few, warned of a narrow gate and of those he will not know. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) taught that the reprobate receive perpetual punishment with the devil, and the Second Council of Constantinople (553) rejected the doctrine that all will finally be restored. Two things the Church insists on that are often forgotten. Hell is not God's rejection of a soul but a soul's final rejection of God, and its chief pain is the loss of him. And the Church, who has named many saints, has never declared that any particular human being is in hell.